Student-perceived parental help with homework: Identifying student profiles and their relations with homework effort, procrastination, and achievement

This study examined student-perceived parental help with homework through a person-centered approach based on the data from 534 8th graders in China. Measures on student-perceived help included (a) two measures relating to student-perceived quality of parental help (content support and autonomy support), and (b) one measure concerning student-perceived quantity of parental help. Latent profile analysis produced five different profiles regarding parental homework help: Low Perceived Help (7.865 %), Medium-Low Perceived Help (24.157 %), Predominantly Perceived Autonomy Support (4.869 %), Moderate Perceived Help (49.813 %), and High Perceived Help (13.296 %). Furthermore, profile membership was related to homework effort, procrastination, and mathematics achievement after controlling for parent education and prior achievement, with medium to large effect sizes. Overall, students with higher perceived parental help (particularly relating to autonomy support) put forth more homework effort, procrastinated less, and scored higher on mathematics achievement. Implications for future studies and homework practices are considered with regard to these findings.